Kenneth Hubbard

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Kenneth Gilbert Hubbard
RAF Shaibah
No. 104 Squadron RAF
Battles/warsWorld War II:
Awards
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Flying Cross
Air Force Cross

H-Bomb) in Operation Grapple in the Central Pacific Ocean
in May 1957.

Early life

Kenneth Gilbert Hubbard was born in

mechanical engineer and professional association football player who played for Norwich City, and his wife Florence née Dack. He was educated at Norwich Technical College from 1932 to 1935, where he trained as a draughtsman. He then worked as a draughtsman for Stevensons of Norwich.[2]

Military service

Second World War

After the outbreak of the

B24 Liberator bombers from Tortorella.[2]

Service 1946 to 1957

While on leave in the United Kingdom, Hubbard married Beatrice Daphne Taylor on 19 January 1946. He went back to the Middle East in May 1946, where he flew

Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1953 New Year Honours.[4][5] His wife divorced him on 28 July 1953. In September he reported to RAF Swinderby for a refresher course on the Wellington and Vickers Varsity at No. 201 Advanced Flying School RAF, and then one at No. 242 Operational Conversion Unit RAF at RAF Dishforth on the Handley Page Hastings and Vickers Valetta.[2]

After an appointment as Personal Staff Officer to the Air Member for Personnel,[6] Hubbard completed the course at the RAF Staff College, Bracknell, in January 1956. The graduates were allowed to express three preferences for their next assignment, and as he had just completed a staff posting, Hubbard asked to be posted to the new V bomber force for flying duties. His request was granted,[7] but he was first sent to RAF Strubby for an all-weather jet refresher course, flying the Gloster Meteor,[8] then to No. 231 Operational Conversion Unit RAF at RAF Bassingbourn for training on the English Electric Canberra, and finally to No. 232 Operational Conversion Unit RAF at RAF Gaydon for training on the Vickers Valiant, the first of the RAF's new generation of V-bombers.[9] In September 1956, he assumed command of the newly reformed No. 49 Squadron RAF at RAF Wittering, flying the Valiant.[10]

Operation Grapple

hydrogen bomb
test on 15 May 1957
RAF Museum Cosford
The crewmen's entry door on the side of the forward fuselage of Vickers Valiant B1 XD818, with the names of Hubbard and his crew

No. 49 Squadron was assigned to

nuclear tests at Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean as part of the British hydrogen bomb programme.[11]

No 49 Squadron had eight Valiants, but only four deployed: XD818, piloted by Hubbard, now a

Squadron Leader L. D. (Dave) Roberts; XD823, piloted by Squadron Leader Arthur Steele; and XD824, piloted by Squadron Leader Barney Millett. The other four Valiants remained at RAF Wittering, where they were used as courier aircraft for bomb components.[12][13] The first mission was flown by Hubbard in XD818, with Millett and XD824 as the "grandstand" observation aircraft.[13][14]

The bomb was dropped from 45,000 feet (14,000 m) off the shore of

hydrogen bomb.[1] From the bomb developers' view, the device turned out to be a failure; its yield was estimated at 300 kilotonnes of TNT (1,300 TJ), far below its designed capability.[16]

Hubbard and his four crew members were awarded the Air Force Cross in the 1957 Birthday Honours.[2][17] His aircraft, Vickers Valiant XD818, is now on display in the Royal Air Force Museum at RAF Cosford.[15]

Service 1957 to 1966

After the Grapple tests Hubbard served at HQ

RAF El Adem in Libya. In 1963, he assumed command of RAF Scampton, the base of the Avro Vulcan bombers of Nos 27, 83 and 617 Squadrons RAF equipped with the Blue Steel standoff missile. His final appointment was Group Captain Training at HQ RAF Transport Command. He retired from the RAF in 1966.[6]

Later life

After leaving the RAF in 1966, Hubbard tried his hand at farming in the West Country. The venture was unsuccessful, but he did meet Margaret Grubb, whom he married at the register office in Blyth, Suffolk, on 14 March 1975, and he moved to Margaret's home at Blythburgh in Suffolk.[2]

Members of 49 Squadron serving during the Grapple nuclear test series formed a Megaton Club and with Hubbard as its president, and they met annually at the Royal Air Force Club at 128 Piccadilly in London.

In 1974, Hubbard became Director of Sales and Marketing of the Vehicle Air Conditioning Division of his cousin Geoffrey Hubbard's Hubbard–Reader Group of refrigeration engineering companies.[18] He retired from this position in 1982.

Hubbard chaired the local review committee for parole at HM Prison Blundeston, and was involved with the local Air Training Corps and the RAF Benevolent Fund.[4] His wife Margaret died in 1997. He had no children from either of his marriages.[2] With Michael Simmons, a director at Hubbard engineering,[18]

Hubbard wrote a book about his experience as the commander of No. 49 Squadron in Operation Grapple. The book was published by Ian Allan in 1985 under the title of Operation Grapple. A new edition with a different title of Dropping Britain's First H-Bomb was published by Pen and Sword in 2008.[19] He died in Blythburgh on 22 January 2004.[4]

See also

  • atomic bomb
    in 1956

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Group Captain Kenneth Hubbard". The Daily Telegraph. 27 January 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93132. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ "No. 37043". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 17 April 1945. p. 2102.
  4. ^ a b c "Gp Capt Kenneth Hubbard - Pilot who carried Britain's first H-bomb". The Independent. 8 March 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  5. ^ "No. 39732". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 30 December 1952. p. 9.
  6. ^ a b Hubbard & Simmons 2008, p. viii.
  7. ^ Hubbard & Simmons 2008, pp. 1–3.
  8. ^ Hubbard & Simmons 2008, p. 5.
  9. ^ Hubbard & Simmons 2008, p. 20.
  10. ^ Hubbard & Simmons 2008, pp. 40–41.
  11. ^ Hubbard & Simmons 2008, p. 43.
  12. ^ Oulton 1987, p. 223.
  13. ^ a b Hubbard & Simmons 2008, p. 120.
  14. ^ Oulton 1987, pp. 308–309.
  15. ^ a b "Individual History Vickers Valiant B (K) Mk.I XD818/7894M Museum Accession Number 1994/1352/A" (PDF). Royal Air Force Museum. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  16. ^ Arnold & Pyne 2001, pp. 145–146.
  17. ^ "No. 41089". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 4 June 1957. p. 3402.
  18. ^ a b Hubbard & Simmons 2008, p. ix.
  19. ^ Hubbard & Simmons 2008, p. iv.

References

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